


before you go, (please don't go) turn the big light off

by Saucyspaghetti



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Friendship, Kinda, Not Really Character Death, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Sad Ending, Time Travel, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-01 23:57:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11497500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucyspaghetti/pseuds/Saucyspaghetti
Summary: "Wherever I end up after this...in whatever reality...all those moments between us were real, and they'll always be ours."(Ours. A word that meant secrecy and something only known to them. It didn't feel special, considering if she would rewind into the butterfly photo, this reality would cease to exist. Rewinding back time meant Chloe dying in the girls' bathroom by Nathan Prescott, thinking that Max Caulfield never came back to her. Not knowing Rachel Amber's true fate. Not given a future to look forward to.)-or: In which Max chooses to sacrifice Chloe but the universe somehow brings them together, regardless of alternate realities separating them. (Perhaps the world isn't totally against them.)





	before you go, (please don't go) turn the big light off

**Author's Note:**

> Not only is The 1975's "I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it"'s instrumental amazing, but the lyrics portray a childish demeanor in which the person is unwilling to let go in a (love) relationship. It's like a dependency, and I think it describes Max and Chloe's friendship/relationship pretty well.  
>   
> Moving on to the lesson and theme of LiS, there's an obvious one which is: don't screw with time. But there's also an important theme that surrounds the whole game. That is, the loss of innocence. In the beginning, the audience thinks, "oh this is just some teen girl who probably learns some things about life." However as the episodes progress and character development shows, you then realize that this game is tackling many issues regarding teen life (suicide, bullying, mental illness, drugs, sexuality) yet also even more serious ones (kidnapping, possible PTSD).

"Fuck that! No... no way! You are my number one priority right now," Max vocalized. After all those times saving Chloe from almost or actually dying, it seemed that the only way to stop the tornado from decimating the whole town was to sacrifice the one and only person she cared the most about.

It was a cruel joke the world was playing.

Giving the girl the power to play God and twist time around her fingers, altering the fates of many individuals (possibly millions, considering time affects the whole world. She may have possibly stopped merely simple accidents such as juice being spilled on to someone's shirt or stop a ball from hitting a kid's face or--- or she could have made things worse than what happened in the original events. The 18 year old might have unintentionally caused an individual's suicide attempt from being failed to being successful. Or she could have prevented the cure to some deadly disease or virus from becoming effective.), was such a diabolical thing to do. She didn't ask to be granted the power.

She didn't want it in the first place.

(But, as always, the power came to great use.)

Saving the blue-haired teen over and over and over again made Max realize that, yes, she was prone to death. However, also, that even though she saw her die a couple of times it didn't lessen the rush of pain stabbing her heart every time.

Plus, why offer the ability to protect the one you love from demise when you eventually have to give them up in the end? It did not make sense whatsoever.

So that's why the brunette declared: "You are _all_ that matters to me."

"I know. You proved that over and over again...even though I don't deserve it." Chloe gestured toward the storm. She then claimed how selfish she was compared to her mom, who had to deal with the death of her husband and grief and the struggle of raising a trouble-making daughter and moving on to someone new and trying to make the family situation work. That Joyce deserved better than to die in a dreadful way.

"There's so many more people in Arcadia Bay who should live...way more than me..." Chloe sounded terrified yet so certain of her fate. Albeit she was disparaging herself, she truly felt that she wasn't equivalent to thousands of people.

"Don't say that!... I won't trade you!" Max yelled, shaking her head in defiance. Although the taller girl could not see it herself, Max knew of how precious and dear Chloe was to her. Chloe was worth so much to her that she didn't need of a price tag. She was worth all the money in the world and more.

"You aren't... maybe you've just been delaying my real destiny. I've died so many times around you, and perhaps I should stay that way," she started, clenching her fists while gazing at the twister. "I've been so selfish these past couple years but...I think I should accept my fate... _our_ fate."

" _Chloe_ ," Max shrieked, more tears cascading down her face. She knew that saving Arcadia Bay would be the utilitarian option. Nevertheless, she couldn't find it in herself to let her best friend go.

Funny how Chloe was now being selfless and Max the complete opposite.

Chloe grasped her hands, feeling her cold and wet skin from the heavy downpour and gusts of wind. "Max, you finally came back to me this week and...you did nothing but show me your love and friendship. You made me smile and laugh like I haven't done in years," she confessed. And it was true; Max was a significant piece in her childhood and being around her made the blue-haired punk feel like a kid again, like she was still young and oblivious to what the real world was. "Wherever I end up after this...in whatever reality...all those moments between us were real, and they'll always be ours."

( _Ours_. A word that meant secrecy and something only known to them. It didn't feel special, considering if she would rewind into the butterfly photo, this reality would cease to exist. Rewinding back time meant Chloe dying in the girls' bathroom by Nathan Prescott, thinking that Max Caulfield never came back to her. Not knowing Rachel Amber's true fate. Not given a future to look forward to.)

"How can you be so sure?" Max questioned, her voice straining so her best friend could hear her through the gales and heavy rain.

"Because no matter what, we were and are real in every universe," Chloe elaborated, her hand latching to the brunette's jacket clad arm like a tether, like she had to hold onto her to stabilize her thoughts. "I've always admired you even when we didn't officially meet until the first grade."

Max's eyes were getting redder, if that was even possible, with fresh tears forming and streaming down her face.

"No matter what you choose, I know you'll make the right decision."

"Chloe...I can't make this choice," she cried out, her arms flailing around in anxiety. But really, how could you trust an eighteen year old girl who had way too much to deal with in a span of a single week to determine who dies?

"No Max..." Chloe started, grabbing her shoulders so she could look into her eyes. "You're the only one who can."

Max's blue eyes were always so expressive, which was very useful to tell what she was thinking when she was being a "shy cliché geek". At this moment, her eyes were solely focused on the taller girl's face as if desperately trying to memorize every single detail on her face; her sky blue eyes, her fading blue hair, the blemishes that weren't even considered blemishes (in Max's biased mind), the fear in her eyes and the determination in her eyes. However Max's eyes also said: " **I don't want to fucking lose you.** "

After what seemed like minutes, it turned out Max chose to sacrifice Chloe for the sake of everybody else's lives.

"Max...it's time."

(Yes, of course _it's_ _time_. It's always about _time_.

Max was so goddamn sick of time.

Time had her in chains yet she had the power to manipulate it (only for it to bail on her).)

Apologies sputtered out of the time traveler's lips, Chloe immediately snaking her arms around Max's neck in comfort. Max easily did the same while clutching to her dark jacket.

Pulling away, Max's partner in crime and time commented, "I know, Max. But we have to. We have to save everybody, okay?" Max nodded very slightly, like she needed Chloe's words to know that it was the right choice. "And you'll make those fuckers pay for what they did to Rachel."

The smaller girl attempted to grasp to every word flowing out of her mouth, but it seemed like everything other than the sight of her visage was blurring out of focus.

"---was the best farewell gift I could have hoped for. You're my hero, Max," she confessed, her voice notably softer and quieter.

Max shook her head as if in a trance. She inched forward, knowing exactly what she wanted to do. Chloe presumably did too, for she glanced down at the teen's lips and not moving away.

And then they were kissing. For real this time.

Kisses often symbolize happiness and love. This one was far too depressing; it tasted like salt and love and letting go.

It was hauntingly beautiful with the monster of a storm in perfect view before them.

Max painfully, slowly parted away, taking her hands off Chloe's cold cheeks.

"I'll always love you," Chloe announced while backing away. "Now get out of here, please! Do it before I freak," she pleaded.

Max watched stiffly as she walked away.

"And Max Caulfield? Don't you forget about me..." she entreated, lifting a hand towards her silhouette.

"Never," the brunette replied instantly. She could never forget Chloe Price, her fellow pirate, her partner in crime and time, her best friend, her first love.

She willed herself to turn away, staring up at the cosmic tornado about to swallow the town whole, and focus on the blue butterfly photo.

_Back in the bathroom...seems like a thousand years ago._

_-_

It was when the gun was fired did Max feel like her world was ending. It seemed like the universe just _wanted_ to fuck her life over repeatedly.

_Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Chloechloechlo---_

_Shit..._ _I_ _never said_ _"I_ _love you" back._

Whilst Nathan was panicking and screaming his head off for his mistake, she was having a breakdown and trying not to let out a sob. (A pathetic one if anyone ever saw her. Because they didn't know what hell she went through trying to save her best friend _overandoverandoveragain_.)

"Fucking shit!" Nathan wailed, pulling his hair and pacing rapidly around the room in frustration. "I didn't... mean to...I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm---"

Then the door barged open.

-

 **_"Mark Jefferson, famous photographer and Blackwell Academy's photography teacher, and Nathan Prescott, a student from the royal Prescott family are both reported to drugging, using teenage girls for 'art', and killing a_ ** **_multitude_ ** **_of them. Therefore they are to be put on trial."_ **

-

Seeing the blue butterfly land on Chloe's coffin, Max smiled for the first time ever since her death.

-

Max scattered all of Chloe's posessions from what she gathered from Joyce and David across her dorm room floor. There was her American flag. Her robot panda keychain. Some of her clothes. Chloe even kept their childhood drawings, and quite a lot at that.

The photos, though, were the ones she treasured the most. Among them were shots of the thirteen year old girl with her naturally blonde hair, along with pictures of her during the start of her teenage rebellion phase. The many pictures of the both of them didn't go unnoticed. It often felt like they were attached at the hip before Max moved. Whenever Chloe was sick and away from school, Max visited her anyway and vice versa. They shared countless amounts of sleepovers.

Nobody could have broken their bond because in the end, that was all that mattered to them.

-

It was Friday and Max was once again found looking through Chloe's photos.

Everything was starting to become routine again:

Wake up. Shower. Talk to Kate. Mentally prepare yourself beforevwalking into school so you don't start randomly bawling. Get traumatized the fuck out by the art photography room. Homework. More homework. Get out of school. Talk to Warren if you feel like it. Go to room, and reminisce on real memories and hell-week-memories while gazing at the blue-haired girl's pictures. Cry because Chloe's not with you anymore.

One thing that was not routine was the ringing of the blue-eyed girl's phone.

Shaken out of her reverie, she picked it up, frowning at the unknown number on the screen. Before, she would have ignored the call, but now there wasn't really anything to worry about. She already went through really bad shit.

 _Fucking_ _Jefferson...I hope he rots in his cell and_ _in_ _hell._

She shivered, not wanting to dwell on what happened to her. It never happened in this timeline so she couldn't exactly explain to the doctor how she possibly had PTSD.

"Hello? You messed up my schedule. Kinda had to cry in approximately three minutes," Max explained in a 'I'm so done with this shit' tone.

" _Holy shit...it's you. It's really you_."

The ex-time traveller's eyes widened in horror, shock, and...relief? _What the actual shit..._

"C-Chloe? No. No, you can't possibly Chloe. Why would you be...? You're supposed to be fucking... _dead_ ," Max mumbled, rausing a hand to her mouth in bewilderment and surprise.

" _Max? Please_ _don't_ _hang up. I'm... the whole town is destroyed_ _and_ _I_ _don't_ _think anyone survived._ " Her voice sounded dead, like she didn't know what to do with her life now.

"Chloe?" Max still sounded uncertain.

" _It's me, I swear._ " Max heard a sniffle. " _Y-Y'know how you said that there were alternate realities?_ _I'm_ _guessing you also meant that you left a version of yourself in that past reality_ ," the punk let out a shaky sigh. " _But_ _I_ _don't see or have a freaking version of you here with me. It's_ _hella_ _bullshit...I'm alone_ again."

 _Again._ Just that word alone made Max's wounded heart get stabbed repeatedly.

"I'm here," she whispered, knowing those words were useless.

" _Not physically...but I guess you are, in some weird, different universe way_."

"I will _always_ be there for you. I'll never abandon you, Chloe," the brunette promised, trying to suppress the tears that would inevitably flow down her pale cheeks.

" _I...I know, Max._ _For some reason,_ _I_ _remember you telling me that right before..._ " She didn't need to say it.

"I did."

" _You did...as in going through photos?_ "

"I hoped it would somehow lessen the blow. I didn't want you hurting more."

" _I...thank you. I really needed that_."

Max bit her lip, furrowing her brow from trepidation. _Now or never...or_ _whetever_ _the saying is._ "I love you, Chloe. So much. I totally regret not telling you that before rewinding..." She instantly felt a calm rush over her, a weight being lifted off her shoulders. She very much wished to let those feelings out.

" _You didn't have to say it. I always knew_."

"...Was I that obvious?"

"Painfully _obvious. Surprised you_ _didn't_ _start drooling after all that time checking me out._ "

"Fuck you."

" _I bet you wanted to_." Aaand Chloe Price was back with all her sexual innuendos, idiocy, and charm. Perhaps they could be normal again in a way. (Or they both could be fucked up together---that seems more realistic.)

"Chloe Elizabeth Price, just...shut up," Max retorted, quietly chuckling.

The blue-haired girl softly laughed, burden still a very evident undertone. " _I will always love you too, Mad Max_."

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was a bit shit, but I hope you guys enjoyed it! (:


End file.
